Prepper Cleaning Tech: Making your own Broom

I was pondering this the other day, what would happen in very tough economic times where things would become harder to get, what would I clean with?  I started to think about my broom i was sweeping the garage with, and realized those wear out sooner or later, what if i couldn’t find one easily? How would i continue to clean the house?  Homes are made for vacuums these days, not brooms (why they were wood floors), however brooms can do the job in a pinch and you can always rip up your carpet if the power isn’t coming back on for awhile or is unreliable.  Side note when I was overseas you notice the unreliability of power grids in other parts of the world not Western.  Often It can come on at odd hours, shut off during mid day or come on and surge the grid, popping circuits and destroying appliances, so we shouldn’t take what we have here for granted!

Ok onto the topic! Ill list a few different options because not everyone is available in every area, so hopefully one of them has you covered!

How to Make a Straw Broom

Needed Items

• Straight Tree Limb
• Source of “Straw” Wild or Farmed
• Twine or Wire (or whatever you have available works)

1. Find a source of Straw this could be from a Farm or in the woodlands, the best is true “Broom Straw” from the Sorgham plant but that is not located everywhere.
2. Find a Good Straight Tree Limb, with smooth Bark, and few knots and other limbs on it to keep you from having extra work. Sharpen the end of one side to a point.
3. Clean the Straw, get out the loose stems and leaves that may be in it. Dont wash it, you want it to be dry!
4. Gather the straw into bundles  of 1-1 1/2 inches thick and grasp the bundles tightly, trim the ends straight, then tie the bundles with twine (you can cut a 1 inch slot in a wood block to make a form to help make assembly easier and helps keep bundles straighter when you assemble them).
5. Tie the Bundles together (how many depends on how big you want you broom, eyeball it) Tie them together one at a time, side by side.  Keep the bundles as flat as possible and wrap the wire or twine back and forth from opposite sides around the bundles. As you do this the bundles will fit tighter and flatter.
6. Push the sharpened end of the Stick into the center of the bundles about 6 in deep.  Tie this off very securely with the Twine, very tight.
7. Cut the ends of the bundles so they are straight

How to Make a Birch Broom

Needed Items

• Birch Branches
• Twine/Willow Branches

1. Very Simple Just bundle The Branches together and tie them together to make a small hand broom
2. However these will only be good for as long as the leaves are green

Birch Splint Broom #2

Needed Items

• Birch Sapling 5 feet long and 2-3 inches thick (straight as possible)
• Knife

1. Mark 12, 14 and 29 inch points on bristle end of broom for later reference
2. Sit down place the sapling between you legs with the handle end under the chair and the bristle end facing towards you
3. Slice Thin strips from the Bristle end towards the 12 inch Mark until the base is cut into splints
4. Slice Strips from the 29 inch mark to the 14 inch mark from the handle end to the bristle end.  This will make the 29-14 strips fall and overlap over the already cut 12 inch strips there will be a band between the two
5. Top Splints are folded over the bottom splints, gather around the band between the two and tightly bind with twine or wire.
6. Trim the Bristles evenly at the bottom.

How to Make a 2 Liter Bottle Broom

Lord knows even in a tough economy or tough times, there are enough plastic bottles laying around EVERYWHERE, so at leas for a while these should be available for broom making, They will also last a long time as well! This idea came from Permacultureideas blog

Needed Items

• 20 2 Liter Soda Bottles
• Broomstick
• Scissors
• Stylus (exacto Knife)
• Awl
• Wire
• Hammer
• nails

Remove the labels on the bottles
Take 1 Bottle Remove the bottom, cut strips to the point where it begins to round, keep the neck

Make 18 the same way but remove the neck of the bottles

Fit the bottles without the neck over the 1 bottle you left with the neck, one by one until they all are on

Take the last bottle and cut it off around 3 inches below where it starts to round to to the neck

Fit that over the base of the broom you just prepared

Drill two holes below the neck the neck of the bottle from one side to the other, so you can insert a wire and loop it back through, twist it to fasten the parts together

Insert the broom handle and secure with two nails

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